When the news broke that Luke Morley would be releasing the solo album, Songs From The Blue Room, there was unsurprisingly a lot of interest. At that time, Luke told MetalTalk that the album “is a kind of side project anyway. Initially, I was thinking I won’t bother doing any gigs.” Now with his new solo album, Walking On Water, out today, and another tour in September, the man must be totally infected with the solo bug.
Casting our minds back to the January 2024 tour and the opening night at KK’s Steel Mill, I ask Luke if there were nerves or apprehension before he hit the stage as frontman. “I don’t get nervous on Thunder tours,” he says. “I don’t suffer from nerves that badly, actually, to be fair. I think what got me out of the habit of nerves was when we did Donington in 1990. I was terrified before that gig because we all were. But then I thought, well, if I can do that, I’ve got nothing to worry about.
“So I don’t normally get nerves. I think before the first gig of my tour last year, a degree of apprehension. Your adrenaline kicks up. I was thinking to myself, don’t shoot your voice out. Over the years, working with Danny, obviously, Danny’s quite excitable. He’s learned to control that and keep the voice healthy, and not over sing. So that was really what I was concentrating on. Not being a regular touring lead vocalist, I made myself very aware of it.
“I love being on stage. I mean, all musicians are show-offs, and a little bit of trepidation, I think, is good. You need to get the adrenaline pump in. I mean, some people have terrible anxiety about it. It doesn’t really bother me too much.”
MetalTalk covered the Luke Morley O2 Academy Islington show, describing it as a soul-warming, perfect night. From what I read, every show was well-received. You imagine Luke must have been chuffed.
“The response to the album and the tour was amazing,” Luke says. “That’s part of the reason that I sort of subjected myself to it again. I just thought, well, I enjoyed it, so why not do it again?
“It’s funny, because writing’s something I tend to do all the time,” Luke says. “But just after the tour, I had written some of the songs. I took a little bit of time off, and then I just thought, right, I’m gonna finish it and get it all done.
“I had written two songs, and the rest of them I finished in like two months. I work quite quickly. But I like to set myself targets like that because you don’t want it bloody dragging on for months. It’s good to strike while the iron’s hot. If you’re in the mood, get it all done.”
The lead single Walking On Water is a great teaser for the album. When I first listened to the lyrics in the chorus, Luke is singing about “coming back from the dead like I was meant to be, cos it’s all about me”. That made me think it was the first song written after the tour.
“No, that’s completely wrong,” Luke corrects me with a smile. “It was actually the last song that was written for the album. I had the rest of it all done. I sat down with, uh, my good friend and collaborator Jason [Joyce], who I always worked with on the visual aspects.”
Jason asked Luke Morley if there was a title for the album, as he had found a brilliant place to do a photoshoot. “He showed me the place where we did the shoot,” he says, “with the water platform on top of the mountain. I said, Do you reckon we can make it look like I am actually walking on water?
“So at that point, I didn’t have a title for the album. I went away and I thought, I wonder if I can write a song called Walking On Water, then we can shoot a video at the same time. So it was kind of a bit like the tail wagging the dog.”
As for the song, it could not be further away from my suggestion that the song was about Luke. “I don’t know where this came from,” he says, “but it’s kind of like if Jesus Christ came back to the world today, what would he be like? Everybody assumes he’d be nice. But he might not. He might be like Donald Trump or Liam Gallagher.
“So I started to put myself in that headspace and thought, well, if I were that kind of person and I were Jesus Christ. So it’s not about me at all. Nothing could be further from the truth.”
Walking On Water is a great song, though. I love the earworm, just before the solo, with the sliding guitar pick, which, when you listen to it on headphones, travels from one ear to the other.
Walking On Water, the album, opens on Natural High which is a great introduction. I really love the solo in there. This prompts the immediate emotional feeling that Luke Morley has gone rockier than on the last solo album.
“I think maybe the fact that I’ve not written a Thunder album for three years might have something to do with that,” he says. “I need to scratch that itch a little bit. It is maybe a little bit rockier than the last one and not as Americana.
“It’s not something that I plan. I wish I could say that I deliberately thought I’m gonna go down this side. But that’s not how I work. I tend to write the songs, and they come out how they come out. Then I record them, and if I think they’re good enough, then they’ll make the cut, and if they’re not, they don’t.
“So it’s regardless of style, really. I think one of the great joys about making a solo album is that you can do whatever you want. There’s no band trademark, if you like. Thunder’s very much a rock band. I mean, if Thunder made a country and western album, people would raise an eyebrow. But I think making a solo record frees you from that kind of expectation.”
Breathe is another beauty, with a nice, busy bassline. On Walking On Water, Luke Morley covers all instruments apart from keyboards and drums. “I love playing bass,” he says. “It’s one of my favourite things to do. That’s the great joy of having a studio in my house. I can do all those things when I feel like doing them. It’s a lovely thing.”
There is a really wonderful melody line in Breathe and a lovely guitar solo. This is a really cool track. “It’s an interesting thing,” Luke says. “When I had pretty much finished [the album], I played it to a few people. All of them picked up on that song. It obviously has something that connects with people.
“You never know when you write songs. You hope that people are gonna like what you’re doing. You can’t take it for granted. But that tune appears to be sort of connecting with people, so I think that’s really good. I’m really looking forward to people hearing that one.”
My standout would be Gun To Your Head. This is a song that really deserves to be massive. I absolutely love that song. “It’s an interesting tune,” Luke says. “When you’re not having a good day. We all go through those days, and you go, OK, right, sort yourself out. It’s that kind of song.”
Forever And Again is yet another really beautiful Luke Morley song. I love the rhythm tempo change into the guitar solos, too. “Fortunately, as a songwriter, sometimes you’ll sit down some days and pick up the guitar and the song just kind of falls out without any effort,” Luke says. “That was one of them. I wrote it very quickly, and I didn’t look at it for a while. So I thought, probably it’s not very good because it worked so quickly. But then I looked at it again and I thought Oh, actually, it’s nice. It’s almost got a country-ish feel to it as well. I’m pleased with that one.”
Don’t You Cry Now is another standout, with Luke channelling his inner Gary Moore there in places. “Well, it was funny because somebody asked me about that,” Luke said. “It hadn’t occurred to me that it was a bit like Gary Moore. But then again, I suppose it’s to do with something that Gary used a lot. He was a fantastic guitar player. But the kind of slightly bluesy, jazzy thing going on… I Still Got The Blues and the Parisian Walkways.
“It’s almost a jazzy direction with the blues guitar lick. I suppose this song has that in places. I can see the way other people would make that reference.”
It is a fantastic song, and the Moore reference I only picked up right at the start. “There is a pure blues guitar solo in there,” Luke says, “which I don’t normally do. Thunder doesn’t, and I don’t normally do stuff that’s that sort of bluesy. So yeah, it was nice to scratch that particular itch, too.”
When I say I love In Your Light, Luke says, “I think you’re a bit of a softie.”
I take the hit, but I suggest that this song deserves to be in the September setlist. “I don’t know yet,” Luke says. “We’ll see. I’ve got to be perfectly honest with you. In Your Light has a sort of acoustic fingerpicking thing. Acoustic fingerpicking is not my strong suit. So it took me quite a while to get it right. So I’ll have to practice it a lot if I’m gonna do it. Maybe, but I don’t know.”
In Your Light is so wonderfully atmospheric. When you have the rockier songs on the album, it is always good to finish off with a more emotional, softer ending. The style that makes you impatient for the next album, and makes you want to go back to track one. “When the song was written and recorded, I thought that had to go last,” Luke says. “It couldn’t go anywhere else on the album, really.”
We speak about the time between completing and releasing an album, but Luke is used to waiting for things to be shared. “Obviously, you make a record, you finish it, you’re proud of it, and you want people to hear it.”
Paul Monkouse described it as, “An album to fall head over heels in love with; Walking On Water is one of the best things you’ll hear all summer.”
He is not wrong. Having spent some time with this, it is one of those albums that you should consume as a whole, from start to finish. Not on a platform that has adverts, but somewhere you can embrace it all with no interruptions.
“Coming from the era I do,” Luke Morley says, “there’s always that lovely thing about when you sit down and listen to a whole album and you get a journey. I’m not sure how many young people listen to music that way anymore. I love buying an album, sitting down and listening to 11-12 songs, and soaking it all up.”
With the tour set for September, the lineup will be the same as before, apart from being joined by “a really good young, Welsh drummer”, Rhys Morgan, who played on Walking On Water. “He keeps the average age of the band down, which I like,” Luke says with a laugh.
Jack Taylor, who played on the previous tour, was difficult to tie down. “He did a brilliant job,” Luke says. “But he’s a very busy boy these days. He’s doing quite a bit of sport, and he’s involved in management of artists.”
Luke Morley releases Walking On Water on 1 August 2025, through Left Hook Records via Townsend Music. It is brilliant and should be listened to properly.
“I can’t wait for everybody to hear the record,” Luke says. “If you haven’t got your tickets yet for the tour, why not? It will be a lot of fun. The last one was. So get yourself along to a show somewhere and I shall see you all there.”
The September Luke Morley tour is a mouthwatering prospect, and MetalTalk will be there to catch a date or two.
